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By Bob McDowell (Born Neil Carson) Number 18-33
POOR LEGISLATIVE RECORD Week of 2018/08/13
In Oklahoma City there is a, basically Republican, quarterly newspaper,
Oklahoma Constitution, that each year in the Summer issue following the annual
Session of the Legislature publishes a summary of the individual voting records
of each of the 48 Senators and 101 Representatives. The record is of their
votes on ten of the bills making it through to law chosen from a list of suggestions
by the readerships submitted to the membership of OCPAC (Oklahoma
Conservative Political Action Committee) for selection. Some bills (4) have a
'Yes' vote considered 'Conservative while 6 were considered 'Liberal' this year.
The member receives 10 points for a 'Yes' vote, 3 for missing a vote, and zero
for a 'Liberal' vote. In my opinion, this arrives at the easiest way to evaluate the
members' service.
The paper lists the members in each house alphabetically and shows name,
city, missed votes, liberal votes, current year record, and cumulative record. Thus
first year 'freshmen' members' records will be the same. For the last few years
it has been my policy to re-sort the lists according to voting record in current
session followed by cumulative record. This makes it easier to track the progress,
or decline, of individual members. Frankly, without computer to 'cut&paste' it
would be practically impossible to do this re-sort. It seems to me that it might be
easier to track records if the number of 'Yes' votes were included in the
presentation and, hopefully, will be added by me next year in my 2019 re-sort.
The re-sort only includes the Republicans with the addition of the most
conservative recorded Democrat shown for comparison purposes.
This year Senator Nathan Dahm, Broken Arrow, again leads in the Senate
with a solid '100' record, followed closely by Anthony Sykes, Moore, with
a 93, having missed one vote. If you approve and are one of either of their
constituents approving, it would be well to call either or their office and so
state. Until January of 2015 there was a toll-free number for the Senate
when it was, surprisingly, disconnected. The highest rated Democrat was
Randy Bass, Lawton, with a 49 rating placing him nineteenth of 48 in the
Senate. Some overall improvement over 2017 was noticed, but still is
somewhat lower than previous years. 'Tail-end charley' again was Ervin
Yen, OKC, with a miserable 13, meaning 1 conservative and 1 missed vote.
Turning to the House we find two with 100 records: Jason Murphy,
whose cumulative is also 100, and Tom Gann, Inola. Right up there is
Chuck Strohm, Jenks, at 93, having missed one vote and Sean Roberts,
Hominy, and Jeff Coody, Grandfield, with one liberal vote each. Top
conservative voting Democrat turned out to be Johnny Tadlock, Idabel,
at 46 and cumulative at 46 or 4 conservative votes and 2 non-votes.
He ranked number 36 of 101 House members. "Tail end charley" turned
out to be Tess Teague, Chocktaw, with a rather poor rating of 9, or just
3 missed votes and 7 liberal votes, making her considered for RINO
status, along with probably 30 or 40 above in ratings. For complimenting
or complaining there is a toll-free number for the House of 1-800-522-
8502 answered by the House operators who with the member's name
will plug you right through. You will find the 'administrative assistants' in
any of their offices helpful, friendly, and the "ones who get things done"
that you may need, rather than bothering the member. At least that has
been my experience!!
In my opinion, my own Senator, Nathan Dahm, is the most
outstanding and has my pride in his performance. He is noted as being
the ONLY member of either house the reads EVERY bill or will not
vote in favor of it, regardless. Unfortunately it appears that far too
many are passed out with sufficient time to really be able to read each
and every one. The same is true for Congress. And too many bills are
far too wordy, often consisting of up to 1,000 pages. By comparison,
the bill for the 'FairTax' is, if memory serves correct, is no more than
four pages, if that.
Along that line, the US Constitution can be read in no more than
one hour and is easy to understand, being devoid of 'legalese". Even
the first 100 years of Amendments were mostly one sentence. The
Oklahoma Constitution is reported to be the longest of the 50 and is
not availble in soft cover books. Legislative members from Missouri
and Pennsylvania have in the past given me a copy of their State
Constitutions and they are 'soft cover' about one-half inch thick, and
include the US Constitution. Maybe it is time for an Oklahoma
Constitutional Convention to re-right and reduce to size publish and
distribute!!!
END
Composed August 7, 2018
Robert W. McDowell, Jr. © 2018 841 Lynwood Lane
918-451-1051 Broken Arrow OK 74011-8608
Email:
abdmcfpi@localnet.com
